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The Ladies of Super Smash Bros. Brawl

Our resident Smash experts tell you all you need to know about the women of Super Smash Bros. Brawl.

It's no secret that Super Smash Bros. Brawl is being played non-stop at GameSpy headquarters. Today, we brought in a pair of our resident experts to examine the move sets and balance changes made to the game's three default female characters: Zelda/Sheik, Peach and Samus. This isn't your typical magazine puff piece showing off their womanly assets in provocative poses. This is the sort of die-hard fighting game information that you'll want to know before inviting your friends over for a long night of competitive Smash.

Zelda

Overall, Zelda has been improved over her previous incarnation. She's always been a slower, floatier sort of character whose strength was in the power of her magical attacks. Her movement speed has been improved slightly, and in a game like Smash Bros. being fast is key. It seems like a good decision to make Zelda a more capable character in this regard, as in high levels of play, competitors would usually just switch over to Sheik and ignore the Hyrulian princess entirely.

Zelda's aerial side A attack, her delicate boot, appears to have a smaller hit box, making it more difficult to land though it remains quite useful. Her aerial up A is much faster now as well. Her forward B fireball attack moves faster and has no explosion delay, turning it into a bread-and-butter move. The fireball knocks enemies up instead of back, making it harder to edge-camp but easier to set up combos.

One trick that we've picked up on is using Zelda's fireball to hit the smash ball instead of trying to hit it with a physical attack. This allows you to avoid getting hit when every player converges on the same location. Since the fireball can be used to hit aerial targets, you can stay on the ground where you're more mobile and less vulnerable.

Sheik

First off, the transformation from Zelda to Sheik takes longer than it did in Melee, so you'll have to bear this in mind when swapping between the two. There haven't been many changes to Sheik's moveset, but the overall impression is that the character seems to have been gimped across the board. Her moves seem slower now with delays built into the animations, making it much harder to combo.

Sheik's aerial side A lacks priority now and doesn't feel as strong, which is painful for Sheik fans to endure, considering that it was a staple move. Her down A attack sends her flying down feet-first now, which our Sheik players aren't crazy about either. Sheik and Zelda have very similar one-shot Final Smash attacks that rely on you lining up your shot before activating. They're guaranteed kills, and both are fairly similar in execution and strategy.

The Sheik character is no longer the obvious choice for the Zelda/Sheik combatant to go for, though some players may find success building damage with Sheik and then switching over to Zelda and her more powerful moves for the kill.